1,000 persons to be recruited for nursing assistant training

As the government continues to expand access to training programmes in the health sector, Minister, Dr Frank Anthony disclosed that the application process will be opened for the nursing assistant training programme this month.

The online course is expected to commence in early January 2024 and will run for one year, Minister Anthony announced during the commissioning of the $120 million Diamond Health Centre on Thursday.

The eligibility criteria include at least three Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects, including Mathematics and English.

“We are looking for people to join this programme [and] we want to recruit at least 1,000 persons to come into that programme…You will sign a contract with us and we will give you a stipend of 16,000 per month…And once we put all the administrative things in place, from early January, we want to start that programme,” Dr Anthony stated.

The initiative is to ensure the health sector is sufficiently staffed to provide healthcare services, as the government continues with its rapid infrastructure agenda to construct several health centres and regional hospitals countrywide. 

Additionally, Dr Anthony noted that persons who are also desirous of completing the three-year registered nursing programme will need to meet the eligibility requirements which include five subjects.

In this instance, the health minister added that some 1,200 persons are being trained in the programme.

“And next year, when we open up the platform again. We want a minimum of 1,500 people to come into the programme. We are looking generally to train about 5,000 registered nurses. And we want them from every region of the country,” Dr Anthony underlined.

“All of you here from the community, I want you to spread the message in the area. Help us to find people so that when we open up the platform, we can have hundreds of people applying for these programmes,” the health minister added.

Besides these programmes, the ministry offers a plethora of other courses including community health workers, biomedical technicians, and pharmacy assistants, among others.